The Rev. Talmadge J. Thomas praised the local alumni chapter of the nation’s oldest African-American intercollegiate fraternity Saturday for awarding scholarships to young black men and called on them to participate in their families, churches, schools, and communities without delay.
“If not now — when?” Pastor Thomas of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church said during an address at the 23rd annual Martin Luther King Scholarship breakfast celebration. “We have to be concerned about more than just ourselves. ... We have to move from protest to participation. ... We ought to make sure that we engage in our community.”
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Pastor Thomas spoke before about 450 people who filled a banquet hall in the Pinnacle in Maumee to near capacity. Daniel B. Johnson, local chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha’s local chapter, Alpha Xi Lambda, said the event was moved to the Pinnacle this year because of growing attendance. This year’s theme was “Fulfilling the Dream.”
“What spoke to me more than anything [from the keynote address] was ... the community aspect of it, about bringing people love with you,” said Keon Rayford, 18, of Toledo, a Bowling Green State University freshman and a 2014 winner of the Alpha Phi Alpha college scholarship.
“You cannot say that you are going to get there and you are not bringing people love with you, because when you get up there you will be lonely, with everybody looking at you at the top, wondering how you are going to help them,” he said.
Mr. Rayford, a 2014 Rogers High School graduate, said his scholarship means a lot to him.
“When I was at home, my mom did not have a lot of money to send me to college, so having a scholarship like this — that could send me to school without my mom having to worry about how I am doing and things of that nature — is just really a big relief,” he said.
Together with an annual golf outing, the annual breakfast raises money for the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter’s scholarship fund, which supports more than $5,000 in annual scholarships for college-bound Toledo-area youths.
Event sponsors include the Lucas County Metropolitan Housing Authority, the University of Toledo, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, African-American Leadership Council of the United Way, and The Andersons.
Following the keynote address, the organization presented its community award — the Drum Major — to Romules Durant, superintendent of the Toledo Public Schools.
That was “not only because he is a hometown young man,” Mr. Johnson said, “but for all the work he’s been doing in education within the community and his leadership, and his guidance to bring the TPS back to the forefront.”
“I feel great to be honored in the name of Martin Luther King ... who stood for justice, for peace, and for love,” Mr. Durant said.
Past Drum Major award recipients include former Toledo Mayor Jack Ford and Wilma Brown, Toledo’s first female council president.
Joseph Sommerville, Sr., a University of Toledo professor emeritus who attended Morehouse College in Atlanta as a freshman classmate of Mr. King in 1944-1945, said the chapter “is doing a great job, something that is much needed in our community.”
“I am very much concerned about the ... young people,” said Mr. Sommerville, who attended the event. “And the young people are our future.”
Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.
First Published January 18, 2015, 5:00 a.m.